Exploding Eggs and Miracles (and more pictures)

Salut ma famille et mes amis!

Well. Victoriaville is going just awesome. I'm starting to really enjoy the work. Even though it's incredibly hard sometimes... it's also really fun and fulfilling because I know I'm doing exactly what He wants me to do.

An interesting fact about Victoriaville (and really all of Canada) is that many, many of its citizens are recent immigrants. We're teaching people from India, Columbia, Congo, Cameroon, Mexico, and many other countries around the world. It's crazy! Everybody speaks French a little different, and some don't speak it at all; they speak Spanish or Hindi or any number of other languages. It's so cool.

Something funny that happened this week: Elder Boscan blew up an egg. Or rather... he blew up three. I was studying in the other room when I heard an explosion... I walked into the kitchen to see the microwave totally destroyed. He'd tried to microwave an entire egg for like... three minutes. I laughed. A lot. Elder Boscan will eat ANYTHING. He doesn't really know how to cook, so he just microwaves whatever he feels like eating. It's probably not very healthy. So you can imagine my surprise when he stuck another egg in there. Followed by another. On the fourth egg, he found the maximum possible time to microwave his egg to keep it from exploding. It was 45 seconds. I'm not touching the eggs for a while. I'm also worried he's going to get us both killed.

I've seen numerous miracles this week, but I'll focus on just one for now. This week, we taught a man in our area named Frere Deodji. As we taught him, his wife picked up the Book of Mormon and started leafing through it. I noticed that and gave her one after the lesson. 30 minutes after we'd left, her son Merville (another of our investigators; he's planning to be baptized soon!) ran up to us and told her she'd just told him something. She'd said, "When I picked up that book... I felt something strange inside me. Something that told me to open it. And when I opened it, I felt like I never wanted to close it." THIS GOSPEL IS SO TRUE! While my mission is very difficult at times, and people don't always want to talk to us, I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and that, as we read it, we will come to know that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that we have a prophet on the earth today, whose name is Thomas S. Monson. I love this gospel, and I KNOW, with all my heart, that it is true.

I love you all so much. You are always in my prayers, and I miss you. Never stop moving forward!

En avant!

Elder Bryan McOmber

 

 Elder Boscan and I.

 The reservoir next to the town.

 Main street.

 

French...Spanish...It's all Greek to me!

Hello all!

Well. I am currently serving in the town of Victoriaville, about 2 hours east of Montreal. It is quite hot and humid here during the day, and I am having a BLAST! I'm from Arizona... bring on the heat! However... I'm very scared for the cold. Below 0? What is this temperature you speak of? We'll see how I deal with winter in a couple months :P Oh! And I have tried the poutine! IT IS AMAZING. The mission president's wife says we are only allowed to eat it once a month or else we'll get fat. And I can see why. I got some poutine with bacon in it as well... it was SO GOOD. Seriously... I'm lucky we're not allowed to eat it more often or I would have gained weight by now. I don't think my companion likes me very much because I'm terrified of getting fat so we run a lot in the mornings... we'll see how that goes :P

In learning a new language, there are many opportunities to look extremely foolish. I have learned this firsthand. Elder Boscan (my companion) and I were discussing (or thought we were discussing) French in the car. And I was talking about what greetings I should use; but he was talking about the fact that people in Victo don't refer to it as Victoriaville; they refer to it as Victo.

Well.

We were calling the members and investigators to introduce me as the new missionary. And, I thought that the greeting I was supposed to use, based on the earlier conversation, was "Victo." So the very next call we had, he introduced me and I yelled, "Bonjour! Victo!"

My companion just gave me a weird look and made the next call. So... I did it again. And again. I only realized that wasn't the greeting when I was talking to him later that day and he said, "Why are you saying that?"

"Saying what?"

"Victo."

"Isn't that how we greet people?"

"...no?"

He would not stop laughing at me for the next day and a half.

We also got a call from some sister missionaries the other day. I answered the phone since my companion was in the bathroom. They said something on the other end of the line, and, since my companion speaks both Spanish and French, and Spanish is widely spoken in Quebec, and I had absolutely no idea what was being said on the other line... I responded with, "I'm sorry. I don't speak Spanish." Immediately I heard very loud laughter on the other end of the phone. Which did not stop for about 5 minutes.

Yup. So... they were speaking French.

This is gonna be interesting. 

Well. I've had one of the hardest weeks of my life this week. It's been extremely difficult to try to teach people in a language I don't understand about something many of them don't seem to want to hear about. BUT. We do have people who need to hear the message and who keep me going when it gets difficult. Most importantly, there have been several times this week where I have found myself in very sincere prayer asking for help from our Heavenly Father with this task of taking His gospel to those who need to hear it. And you know what? The harder I work, the happier I am, and the more I feel like I'm a successful missionary. It's going to take some time to get used to this way of life... but with the help of the Savior, I KNOW I can do this. It's that way with everything in life; the harder we work at something, as we ask God for help, the more we will progress and the happier we will be.

I love and miss all of you. This is a difficult thing to do, but I'm doing it because I love our Redeemer and other people need to know what He's done for all of us and how we can return to live with Him again. That's our message, and even though it's hard... I'm gonna share it. You are all in my prayers each morning and night. Thank you for your love and support... I really need it. Keep pushing forward, and never give up! We're never on our own!

En avant!

Elder Bryan McOmber

Oh, Can...a...da - I'm On My Way!!!

Hello friends and family!

Oh. My. Gosh. It's finally here!!! I leave tomorrow morning at 3:30 AM to fly to Montreal, Canada, and I am so darn excited I can't even contain it! Today is a frenzy of packing and goodbyes and singing songs and just a ton of crazy stuff. But... I'm REALLY glad to leave the MTC. Not that I haven't loved it... because I have. But... there are things I need to do and people I need to meet in Montreal, and the MTC is just the preparation stage of the mission. The REAL work begins as soon as I step off of that plane in the Montreal airport. And honestly... I'm really, really scared. I don't know this language, I don't know these people, I don't know who my companion is going to be, I don't know my mission president, I don't know the area I'll be serving. I know NOTHING. BUT. This work is not about me or what I don't know or what I lack. This work, this thing that we as missionaries have been called to do (along with every other member of the church; we just do it all day long), is not about how well I speak or how much I understand the people. This work, the work of inviting others to come to know Jesus Christ, is about Him. The only things required for us to share the gospel with power are these: a willing heart, obedience to the commandments, and a love for Jesus Christ. That's it. Everything else is extra. Which is not saying knowing the language doesn't help, because it does. There are plenty of things we can do to assist in the work. But those three things are the only requirements. That's the greatest thing I've learned here in the MTC.

Something hilarious happened at the beginning of my stay at the MTC that I totally forgot to tell everyone about, but I remembered this week because somebody brought it up again. Elder Critchlow (hopefully you guys have seen the pictures... he's the elder with the fiery red hair) was in our room and I was talking about my family and he said something like, "Do you have any pictures of your family?" So I pulled out my little brag book I have with pictures of my friends and family and showed him a picture of all of us. He looked at it for a little while and then said something like, "Elder McOmber, your sisters are both really attractive." It took me a full ten seconds to comprehend what he was saying. Sisters? But wait... I only have one sister... But wait... I have a mom too... she's the only other girl in the picture... wait... no... I'm gonna kill him. So I said, "I only have ONE sister. That's my mom." I expected him to get apologetic and awkward.

Nope.

He immediately said, "Then your mom is really attractive too!" But he made up for it a little by saying, "Your whole family is full of models! You guys are all attractive!" I wasn't sure whether to get mad or just let it go... so I just laughed and moved on, away from the awkwardness. But I made sure later that day to clarify that nobody gets a chance with my sister unless I say so. :P

I had a really cool study period today in which I read through and studied the Christlike attribute of charity. In Luke Chapter 10, a man asks the Savior a question, "Who is my neighbor?" Jesus Christ responds with a parable (a form of analogy) entitled "The Parable of the Good Samaritan." I would encourage you to read that parable (it's pretty short) because it's awesome for learning how to love people. Anyways, I found three major types of people in the parable. First, a "certain man." Sometimes we all fit into this category, as we travel through our own personal "road from Jerusalem to Jericho." Life is full of thieves, or experiences which take from us our confidence, our family members, our possession, or even sometimes our happiness for a time. Second, there are "priests" and "Levites." I put these two into the same category because Levites had very similar jobs to priests in the New Testament; in fact, they were usually assigned to assist the priests. Both of these walked by the "certain man" in the road without helping him in the slightest. These men knew the law very well, being priests in the temple, and the law stated that if one saw a man's animal collapse on the road, you should not hide yourself, but rather help him lift his animal again. How much more important was it, then, to help the man himself when he has fallen by the way? Obviously they convinced themselves not to, soothed their consciences by saying they were in a hurry, or that the thieves might come back. Excuses are readily plentiful to those who seek them.

However. The third type of person, a Samaritan, came along and "had compassion" on the fallen Jew. (The man was likely a Jew, as he was traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho.) The Samaritans and the Jews had a long history of hatred, to the point in which Jews were forbidden even to eat food prepared by the hands of the Samaritans, and would take long detours around the land of Samaria to avoid being made "unclean." The Jews treated the Samaritans with a "much holier than thou" attitude. And yet, a Samaritan took the time to stop, bind and clean the wounds of the fallen Jew, place him on his beast, and take him to an inn, at which time the Samaritan paid for his future care, and promised to return. This is the requirement made of each of us. The Samaritan did not find an excuse, because he wasn't looking for one. This is the demand that our Redeemer makes of each of us. As we travel through our own roads to Jericho, we will most definitely find those who have been cut down and thrown to the side of the road by the thieves of life. If we are looking for excuses to pass by, if we tell ourselves we have to be somewhere or that this person will probably not appreciate what we might have to offer... we are in danger of becoming those hypocritical priests who passed by on the other side of the road. Can I offer a challenge? Don't look for excuses. Let's look for ways to help. Look for ways to clean the wounds, place them in our own care, and be there for them as often as we can. That is the Savior's character. He could have found excuse in so many instances. And yet, He loved perfectly. He healed the sick, forgave the sinner, and performed the Atonement; He gave His life for people who would constantly fall short of His demand to "be ye therefore perfect." That is our example, and that proves that it is indeed possible to help the fallen stranger. If He could do it, then we can do it with His assistance as we pray for the desire to love our fellow men; ALL of them. I know He loves us. I know He will help us love others. I love Him with all my heart, and I testify that He lives today, our Savior, Redeemer and Brother.

I love you all. You are in my thoughts and prayers every morning and night, and I wish you all the best. The next letter I send home will be from Canada! I'M SO EXCITED TO GET TO WORK! God be with all of you until we meet again!

En avant!

Elder Bryan McOmber

 

 Frere Pehrson, one of my French instructors! He went to Canada Montreal, too!

 Soeur Johns, my other French instructor! She went to France Paris!

 Elder Menzel and I. He's from Germany, and we played soccer together a lot here at the MTC!

 

Heading to Montreal Next Tuesday!!! So excited!!

Bonjour mes amis et ma famille!

So this week has been pretty interesting! WE GET TO GO TO MONTREAL IN A WEEK!!!! SO EXCITED!! But Elder Niederhauser had a kidney stone that wouldn't pass, so he had to go in and get surgery on Friday. They pulled out the stone, but there was a complication (something was really tightly shut in his body so they had to open it and put in a stent) and so he may have to stay in the MTC a couple extra weeks which is REALLY hard for him. But he's still possibly able to come with us to Montreal... so we'll see. Please pray for Elder Niederhauser!

One night this week, we were going to bed and just kinda laying in bed quietly. Elder Woo started to tell us this story. "So there was this boy, a really long time ago. And he was a pretty special kid. Like... really special. But he was living in this really poor town with his mom (his dad was gone). He was also super smart and loved building and fixing things, but the town where they lived was in the middle of the desert so there wasn't really a lot to build and fix, except for these race cars that the people of the town all loved to watch race. It turns out this kid was pretty good at racing those.

"One day these two older guys got stranded near the town. And they had this really beautiful girl with them. They went to the little shop the boy worked in (by the way, the shop owner was kind of a jerk and he really took advantage of the boy and his mom, who were basically his slaves) and asked the shop owner if he could give them some stuff to help them make it where they needed to go. But they didn't have enough money to pay for the stuff, so they started to leave. But the boy felt bad for them so he decided he'd help them. In order to help them, he had to win one of the races they had in this town."

Here the whole district is enthralled in his story. But then Elder Bird goes, "Wait. Is this Star Wars??" And Elder Woo goes, "Dang. I thought you guys would think I was the best storyteller ever." We DIED laughing. Now we've begun a tradition of telling really vague stories with no names involved and seeing if everyone else can guess the movie. It's crazy funny.

I was reading a talk this week by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, who is an Apostle in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The talk is entitled, "Lord, I Believe" and I would encourage all of you to look it up. But Elder Holland addresses the story of a father who approaches Jesus Christ with his son. His son is possessed by a devil and he has tried EVERYTHING to help his son, to no avail. Then he hears of this rabbi, who people are calling the Son of God, and who has relieved other demoniacs of their burdens. With all the desperation of a parent with a very sick child, he rushes to the Savior and asks Him a question that I love. "If thou canst do anything, have compassion on us and help us." This father is desperate for ANY help he can get, and while he doesn't know if the Savior can actually help ("if thou canst do anything"), he's trying hard to get help from our Lord. The Lord responds with "If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth." The father immediately cries back, "Lord, I believe," but follows that statement with, "Help thou mine unbelief." The Lord then heals his son.

Sometimes we feel that in order to receive help from God, we have to have perfect faith in Him. That is NOT true. Elder Holland says something I think we could all learn from: "In moments of fear or doubt or troubling times, hold the ground you have already won, even if that ground is limited." If we are willing to pray to ask God for help, we are in essence declaring, "Lord, I believe!" And then all we need do is ask for aid from our loving Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, and they will strengthen our conviction, deepen our resolve, and calm the tempests that rage around us. And because of the help they have given us, we will recognize that they have helped our unbelief.

I testify that we have a Savior. I testify of the truth that He knelt in a garden two thousand years ago and felt every pain we will ever endure and took our sins on Himself so that we could be forgiven of all of our mistakes as we come to Him and so that we could return to live with Him again. To ANYONE at home who is struggling with faith, with doubt, with uncertainty, I beg you to do what this father did. Explain your struggles to your Father in Heaven, ask Him for help. Remember that we are NEVER too far away for Him to hear us and help us. He will help you and all who have just enough faith to hit their knees and ask him to help them carry the burdens placed on their backs. He has helped me countless times, and He will help you. I KNOW that, and I bear witness of that truth in His name, even Jesus Christ. Amen.

I love and miss every single one of you. I can't wait to hit the field, and I will see you in 23 months. :)

En avant!

Elder Bryan McOmber

 

 Elder Woo and I forgot what the Mexican flag looked like... so we drew this.

 Left to right: Me, Elder Woo, Elder Niederhauser, Elder Bird

 Elder Woo and I outside the Provo Temple

 

French, MTC Silliness, and Testimony Builiding

Hello all!

The MTC is still going awesome! I'm actually really anxious to get outta here and go to Montreal, but the learning process is going well and I'm getting more prepared every day to go out and teach! FRENCH IS SUPER HARD THOUGH. Like... whoa. Especially because this week our teacher (who served his own mission in Quebec a year or two ago) switched into his Quebecois accent for the last 2 weeks we're here and seriously... it's not even the same language. It sounds very interesting. I'm a little scared of showing up in Montreal and finding out they actually speak something that sounds like Mayan. So... yeah. Definitely going to be interesting.

So. Elder Niederhauser. He... has a kidney stone. And it's... hilarious. He's on Lortab... which is a seriously crazy painkiller. And he's a completely different person. He tried to slide down the railing of the stairs on the fourth floor (while on the medication) and Elder Bird had to grab him. "No no no no no. Elder, you're WAY too medicated to do that." To which Elder Niederhauser, usually the most mature of all of us, responded with, "PLEASEEEEE??" It was hilarious. But anyways, because of his stone he's constantly drinking fluids... which means he's constantly leaving to go to the restroom. In the middle of the night a couple nights ago, he walked back into the room after using the bathroom and apparently I had a conversation with him in my sleep. It went something like this.

Me: "Elder Niederhauser."

Him: "Yes?"

Me: "I have something to teach you."

Him: "Alright, preach!"

Me: "Listen carefully."

Him: "Got it."

Me: "That hymn was published AFTER Brigham Young died."

Him: "Uhhhh...."

Me: "You got it?"

Him: "Sure."

Me: "Cool."

After which I promptly fell back asleep. I think I may be going insane.

Also, another funny thing the elders do... we sing in the showers. Not individually... we all harmonize random songs (from Michael Buble to the Beatles) as we shower. It's amazing. We have some pretty solid acoustics, I'm not gonna lie. Mormon Tabernacle Choir, here we come. :P

I had a really cool experience this week. On Sundays, after a devotional, all the missionaries have the opportunity to watch special films (usually past devotionals that have been given or movies about Church history). This Sunday was Fast Sunday (for those of you who don't know what that means, on the first Sunday of each month, members of our faith fast, or abstain from eating for 24 hours, and pray for help from our Heavenly Father), and I was fasting and praying for the ability to know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. I believed he was a prophet, but I hadn't yet felt the Spirit testify to me that it was true. Well, Sunday night we happened to watch a movie about Joseph Smith and his life. And after I watched, I felt something different about the story than I'd felt before. I felt in my heart that the story is true. I can now say that I KNOW Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, the first prophet of these modern days. I KNOW that in 1820, when he was 14 years old and had questions about what church to join, he was visited by our Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, who chose him to restore the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ to the earth. I know that if it wasn't true, he would not have stood by his testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the things he'd seen as he was attacked and persecuted. I know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the same church Jesus Christ established while He was on the earth, and that if any of us need to know the same, all we need to do is the same thing Joseph Smith did in 1820: ask of God, through prayer. I know that this gospel has changed my life forever. And because of that, how can I NOT share it with everyone I know? I love this gospel. I love our Savior. I love that He gave His life for each of us so that we can return to live with Him again.

I love all of you so much. You're in my prayers every morning and night and I miss you all. Until next week!

En avant!

Elder Bryan McOmber